Orcish
Orcish (aka Orc) is the primary language of the Orcs and is used throughout the Horde faction. All Horde characters understand Orcish speech, even without explicit lore reasons (such as the Forsaken and the Blood elves). Orcish is written using a combination of Common alphabet and runes. Orcish is a coarser language than Common, and many words lack the subtlety of Common. Orcs rely on context, repetition and volume to add emphasis or meaning. There are many orc dialects, examples include one spoken by the majority of the Horde, and another by orcs living near Durnholde. Even separate tribes had variations of dialect that differed so much that orcs could not understand each other unless they spoke the common tongue. The main form of the Orcish language used by all the tribes is known as common Orcish . Orcish Primer (official translations) Here are a few common orcish phrases and words, for which the translations have been officially confirmed by Blizzard: * "Aka'Magosh." = "A blessing on you and yours." * "Bin mog g'thazag cha!" = "I will protect you!" * "Dabu." = "I obey" * "Dae'mon" = "Twisted soul" ; appears to be used in the same way as Man'ari in Draenei. * "Gol'Kosh!" = "By my axe!" * "Grombolar" = "Bowels of the giant" * "Grommash" = "Giant's Heart" (Source: Inscription on the Monument to Grom Hellscream in Ashenvale; also mentioned in the Harvest Festival quest "Honoring A Hero") * "Kagh!" = "Run!" / * "Lohn'goron" = "Hero's Sojourn" (Source: Quest:Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn-heart) * "Lok-Narash!" = "Arm yourselves" * "Lok-Tar!" = "Victory!" (A war cry. Also a greeting while in combat.) * "Lok-Tar Ogar!" = "Victory or Death!" (A war cry.) * "Lok'amon" = Traditional orcish song sung about starting a family. * "Lok'tra" = Traditional orcish song sung about a battle. * "Lok'vadnod" = Traditional orcish song sung about the life of a hero. * "Mok'nathal" = "The Sons of Nath" (honorable title) * "Nagrand" = "Land of Winds" * "Oshu'Gun" = "Mountain of Spirits" * "Swobu." = "As you command." * "Throm-Ka." = "Well met." (A greeting.) * "Trk'hsk" = "Bloodshed in battle" (some orcs in the Durnholde area use the word with a different meaning, namely "that sacrificed to the earth in order to make crops grow") * "Zug-zug." = Acknowledgment and agreement; roughly the equivalent of "okay". Orcish Names Most orcish names derive from words in their language that have some complex meaning or hidden significance to their families. Typically, this is the name of a favorite thing or relative. Family names don't exist; most orcs have last names related to some great deed of heroism or honor. However, in the case of truly incredible deeds, an orc might take on the last name of his father to ensure that the chronicle of that terrific deed lives on. *Male Names: Grom, Thrum, Drog, Gorrum, Harg, Thurg, Karg. *Female Names: Groma, Hargu, Igrim, Agra, Dragga, Grima. *Family Names: Doomhammer, Deadeye, Forebinder, Elfkiller, Skullsplitter, Axeripper, Tearshorn, Fistcrusher. Untranslated Orcish Names * Gor'gaz - Fel orc camp in Hellfire Peninsula. * Grangol'var - Shadow Council village in Terokkar Forest. * Grom'gol - Horde camp in Stranglethorn Vale. * Kor'kron - Thrall's elite guard. * Mag'har - Brown-skinned orcs based in Garadar in Nagrand. * Mor'shan - Warsong Gulch base camp in the Barrens. * Valormok - Horde camp in Azshara. * Zeth'Gor - Fel orc fort in Hellfire Peninsula. * Zeth'kur - Former orcish port town. * Zoram'gar - Horde camp in eastern Ashenvale. This may also be Zandali. Note that many orc locations are directly named for prominent orcs, including Durotar, Garadar, Grommash Hold, Kargath, Kargathia Keep, Orgrimmar, and Thrallmar. Sample Words or Phrases (speculation) This is the list of words created by the in-game language parser for the Orcish language, and is listed as language number one (word range 1-100) in the Language text file. Note: The language algorithm used by the in-game "translator" merely makes the words look like Orcish. It does not actually translate words. Therefore, translated in-game speech isn't true Orcish. |} Word List (speculation) * Grom'gol - Horde camp in Stranglethorn Vale. - Grom being an honor to Grom Hellscream (as well as an Orcish word for "giant"), and Gol probably (based on defined terms in primer) means "By my" or "Axe" so it could be speculated to mean "Grom's Axe", "Giant's Axe", "By Grom" and others. *Kek = Lol When a Horde character says "lol" in Orcish, it displays as "kek" to Alliance characters. Since "lol" is used quite often in the game by many players this translation has become widely known, so that when an Alliance character sees a Horde character saying "kek" he can be almost sure that the Horde character said "lol". It should be noted however that since Blizzard is using a kind of hashing algorithm for the translation of languages in the game that maps any 3-letter word to a pool of about 12 different Orcish words with 3 letters, there also exist a lot of other 3-letter combinations that produce the translation "kek". For example, if a Horde character typed "146" in Orcish it would also display as "kek" to the Alliance character. But still, since the most common "word" that translates to "kek" is without a doubt "lol", many fans have accepted "kek" as kind of an official translation of "lol" into Orcish. Although, of course, it is doubtful that the word "lol" (which isn't really a word in the English language, anyway) really exists in the fantasy world of Azeroth. Kek's origin is from Starcraft's online service whose large Korean fanbase uses kek in place of lol.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kekeke#Kekeke Some more Orcish phrases (speculation) Although no official translations have been released for them, here are some more Orcish phrases and their rough meanings based on the actions of the units in the RTS games when they say them: * "Lok-Regar Ogull, On-Dabu." = "Ready for orders." Speculation "Orc" as a term defining language, has an apparent connection to DnD derived generic languages, which apparently can be found in DnD rule books. Category:Game Terms Category:Languages